Perspective-Taking in an Imaginary Society: Asymmetric Expectations

Abstract

The barriers to peace in terrorist societies can seem senseless to outside observers. A role-play experiment in which participants take the perspective of terrorists or landowners based on the N. Ireland conflict is reported. Participants were put in the shoes of either a Plutat (Protestant) or a Camta (Catholic). They each knew that both imaginary societies used bombing and assassination strategies, and that three thousand people had been killed on both sides. Blame was first apportioned equally, both ceased military offensives together, and a map sharing the land equally between them was chosen. After receiving an envelope containing information randomly labelling one society as ‘landowners’ and the other as ‘terrorists’ they each blamed one another, expected the other to ceasefire first, and the ‘landowners’ refused to share the land equally with their ‘terrorist’ counterparts. The results are relevant for understanding social behaviour in contemporary terrorist contexts, and they confirm that perspective taking cannot presuppose that positive rather than negative representations of another will be activated (Epley et al., 2006).